Gujarati Kadhi

March 12, 2016

Recipe for Gujarati Kadhi / Yogurt curry

Gujarati Kadhi is a light soup made using buttermilk or thinned yogurt. Khichdi (a rice and lentils one pot dish) and kadhi is one of the most popular meals in Gujarati cuisine. Easy to prepare even on a weeknight and light on the stomach, this is one of my favourite meals too!

I’ll tell you how kadhi fits perfectly into my busy life. I work from home, and you might think I’m an organised person. How I wish I were one! Some days, it’s 1 PM and I’m scrambling around madly in the kitchen, famished, and not knowing what to have for lunch. At such times, rice in the small pressure cooker and a super quick kadhi, like the recipe I’ve shared below, are ready in under 15-20 minutes. Roasted papad and sliced cucumber on the side, it makes a perfectly decent meal.

Kadhi is also the perfect solution to that small pot of yogurt lying in the corner of the refrigerator shelf, getting sourer (is that even a word!) by the day. Sour yogurt works better for kadhi, than fresh yogurt.

Tip: If the yogurt you are using is very sour, then dilute with some more water, add a bit of extra chickpea flour and a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the sourness.

You might wonder what’s the difference between a Gujarati Kadhi and a Punjabi Kadhi. Kadhi-Chawal is a very popular preparation in Punjabi homes. Punjabi kadhi is thicker with more besan added to it, often with the addition of pakoras to make Pakora Kadhi. It also has more deeper yellow from the generous use of turmeric. The tadka in a Punjabi kadhi consists of sliced onions and fenugreek seeds, and a final garnish of coriander.

Gujarati kadhi is much thinner with cloves and curry leaves in the tempering, very faintly yellow or cream coloured from a touch of turmeric or omitted entirely. Addition of jaggery or sugar balances out the sourness of the yogurt.

In my recipe for Gujarati kadhi, I have omitted sugar entirely and added more than a touch of turmeric because I like the golden colour it imparts.

In a bowl, whisk 2 tbsp yogurt with the chickpea flour, until there are no lumps. Mix in the remaining yogurt, water, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder and whisk well until everything is combined well.

In a heavy bottomed pan, add the above mixture.

Season with salt and allow this to come to a simmer on a medium-low flame. Keep a watch on this and it needs constant stirring to prevent the yogurt from splitting. The kadhi will get thicker as it simmers for 3-4 minutes and the chickpea flour cooks through.